


to be home again

by pitoumugis



Series: Child Caregiver, Maki Harukawa [1]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Talentswap (Dangan Ronpa), Oumota if I continue the series, but only one of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23558770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pitoumugis/pseuds/pitoumugis
Summary: Maki Harukawa is the Ultimate Child Caregiver. Kokichi Ouma reads so perfectly like a scared kid it's disgusting.(It's worrisome. And nobody is going to look out for him if she doesn't.)A short oneshot, possibly a small series of oneshots.
Relationships: Harukawa Maki & Oma Kokichi
Series: Child Caregiver, Maki Harukawa [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1695631
Comments: 19
Kudos: 210





	to be home again

**Author's Note:**

> you guys have no idea how much i love actual caregiver maki. this is just my personal opinion but i think she would have been far more fun and interesting as a caregiver than an assassin. She gives stubborn big sister vibes and i love it so much.
> 
> Maybe Its The Found Family Vibes

At what point does your life stop being ‘ _normal_ ’?

Blinking away at a dusty ceiling, laying face up on the hard floor of what appears to be an old library, this is the question Maki Harukawa asks herself. At what point did she take a wrong turn? At what point, had she sealed her fate, that this is how she wakes up today?

With a groan, she pushes herself to her feet, brushing the dirt off her uniform; it’s too expensive to get dirty. She’s only running a hand through her ponytail to untangle the knots, when she’s visited by five talking bears; colorful in more ways than one.

She’s sure that this is when any concept of ‘ _normal_ ’ was thrown directly out the window and then shot to death,  
  


* * *

  
Their meeting is unfortunately inelegant, halfway up the staircase when something small and purple comes barreling into her, knocking her down the few steps she’d taken with a shriek. She sits up, coming face-to-face with a boy, wide eyed and disheveled from the fall. She opens her mouth, but he beats her to it with a grin. “Aw, shucks! You were supposed to hit your head and die!” He laughs, a strange _nishishi_.

Maki blinks unphased, and instinctively her hand connects with his head, lightly smacking him upside and making his messy hair even more so. “Don’t run in the halls!” She scolds first, before pushing him off and rising to her feet, once more brushing off her skirt.  
  
Immediately, he breaks into big, dramatic crocodile tears, wailing as loud as he can. Maki can feel a headache approaching, and she can feel the phantom tugging of children on her sleeves. It throws her back, almost physically, to the orphanage, of just trying to get ready for school and being bombarded by kids.

“Are you a child?” She snaps, crossing her arms. “Come on, get up, you’re fine,” she tells him, before reaching down and grabbing his arm, pulling him to his feet as he promptly stops crying.

“Gee, you’re strong!” He points out, and Maki scowls. “What a glare! That’s the look of a killer. Hey, are you the Ultimate Assassin?”

Yeah, this guy is going to give her a headache. “No, I’m _not,_ ” she sighs and realigns herself mentally. “Maki Harukawa, Ultimate Childcare Giver,”

He pauses and tilts his head curiously. “You don’t look like the type who’d like kids,”

“I’m _not_ ,” she says quickly, almost defensively. “I just... get saddled with helping out a lot. They just cling to me on their own,” her cheeks puff as she purses her lips, fiddling with her ribbon. She’s really not a kid person, okay? She just can’t leave them alone or they’ll get in trouble.

The boy gives her this _knowing_ look, and she _really_ wants to smack him.

“Anyway," She says quickly, eager to change the subject, trying to avoid that annoying look in his eyes. "Are you going to stand there all day, or do you want to actually introduce yourself?”

“Hmmm.... Nah!” He giggles again.

Maki closes her eyes and breathes.  
  
“I’m leaving,”

As she moves to step around him, he flusters into action, laughing the whole way as he swivels around to step in front of her again. “Ahh, wait, wait! I was just kidding! It was a lie!” He laughs. “I’m Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader!”

Maki is struck with a premonition. If she leaves him alone, _he’s_ going to get in trouble.

 _Not my problem. He’s, what, sixteen? It’s fine. He can take care of himself_. She tells herself, resolutely swearing not to get involved, briefly registering herself replying to Kokichi and swerving around him to head upstairs.

Kokichi only spins on his heel and follows her. “Heyyy, Harukawa-chan! Don’t go that way!” He calls out, and she pauses. “There’s an evil robot up there who wants to destroy the world and kill all humans!”

Without missing a beat, Maki tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and replies in complete deadpan, “Then we’ll just have to defeat the evil robot and save the world, right? Then we can explore without worry,” and it takes her a moment to remember that she’s _not_ playing along with the kids back home, and her cheeks turn red. She quickly fiddles with her ribbon, and she opens her mouth to stutter out whatever excuse comes to mind first, but she stops when a wide, positively _delighted_ grin takes over Kokichi’s face, and decides, well, that’s fine.

It doesn’t occur to her until later, listening to Kokichi chatter on as they walk, that she’d more or less agreed to explore with him.

Ah, fuck.  
  


* * *

  
Maki Harukawa is a mother hen, Kokichi thinks, as she pulls him back for the umpteenth time before he can ‘run off and get himself killed’, so she says. It’s almost funny how she pretends not to care, then cares immensely.

It's also funny how she'll play along with whatever grand lie he comes up with next, indulging in his most childish games without batting an eye or deviating from her deadpan tone of voice.

People oftentimes get mad at him for lying, for being so childish, but isn't it fun to embrace your inner child and goof off? At the very least, it keeps him grounded in this strange situation, not knowing who brought them here or why, what dangers could be around every corner.

So, he laughs. He laughs, and he lies, and he goofs off. What's annoying, though, is that he thinks Maki knows this.

Oh, she scolds him. She gets annoyed, she lectures him, and he doesn't doubt that she'd put him in timeout if she could.

But Maki doesn't get _mad_ at him. She puts up with his bullshit, humming short replies, catching him by the arm when he trips, and gosh, isn't she just like a stubborn big sister? Isn't that funny?

Isn't that funny?

Gathered in the gym, the 16 Ultimate students bicker back and forth about the situation, Kokichi himself only fueling the fire. Maki doesn't bat an eye, but she scowls, like she has a terrible migraine, and shoots a glare at Miu when she shouts right back at him.

The purple, space clad moron known as Kaito waves her off before Kokichi can say anything else, shooting everyone a grin and a thumbs up. “Don’t worry about it! Just leave it to me!” He claims. “If those teddy bears show themselves again, I’ll kick their asses!”

Oh God, he’s going to get everyone killed. Maki stands up straight and claps her hands quickly in a pattern. Which is then replicated back to her by about half the people gathered, and she’s struck with the thought that _my god, teenagers are just tall children_. “Okay, stop,” she starts. “Don’t do anything reckless before we know what’s going on.”

“Yeah!” Kokichi swings his arms behind his head. “Children should listen to Harukawa-chan!”

“Who’re you callin’ a child, you fucking babyface twink!” Miu bristles and shouts back, glaring sharply as she swings her hand in the air to punctuate her words.

Luckily, it’s Kaede who steps in with a reprimanding, “Guys!” and Maki thanks the stars that there’s another person here with any sort of brain cells whatsoever. The two stop before the argument can spiral, but it doesn’t stop Kokichi from sticking his tongue out at Miu.

Maki elbows him for it.

Before anyone else can cut in and send the conversation horribly off the rails, a low rumbling sound echoed throughout the room, the students whipping their heads around, searching, whispering.

Kokichi feels his heart _sink_.

Rightfully so, when five huge robots jump down onto the gym floor, rattling the walls and causing some to stumble, Kokichi included. They're big, much bigger than any of them, armed to the fucking nines in guns and heavy artillery, as if it couldn't kill them just by stomping on them.

Maki doesn't think, she acts, and grabs Kokichi and pulls him behind her, shielding him with her body, despite how she shakes like a leaf, heavy with fear as the robots— the bears from earlier— bicker and shout over each other and for a moment she's sure they're about to start shooting and her blood runs cold.

Distantly, she feels the tug of small hands on her shirt. It's... Strangely comforting, and she remembers how to breathe when the bears stop arguing.

Things get worse. Because of fucking course they do. The green one says it flat out and leaves no room for questions.

"IT'S-A-KILLING-GAME."

This is when Maki's mind runs blank and she stops listening. She tries to focus on their words but they don't register. Kokichi is talking, cheer forced into his voice ten times more than before, and the buzzing only briefly dissipates to think, _he's going to get himself killed like that._

It's really not her problem. Unfortunately, she's going to make it her problem. She can't help it. Not when he reads so _perfectly_ like a scared child, blurting out lies to keep himself safe.

He's going to fall, and nobody will catch him if she doesn't.

**Author's Note:**

> this was actually in my docs for quite a while i almost forgot about it. i do love this au so much, so i kinda wanna write more about it, but it'll prolly be short oneshots in semi chronological order, instead of a real fleshed out multichapter fic. my main focus is on my kny wisteria au after all :)
> 
> [here's my caregiver maki design, though!](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/383503720744484874/666081030821773317/unknown.png) Based on one of her betas :)
> 
> thank you for reading !


End file.
